Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2024
DOI
10.1038/s41558-024-02082-3
Publication Title
Nature Climate Change
Volume
14
Issue
9
Pages
936-942
Abstract
As natural disasters grow in frequency and intensity with climate change, limiting the populations and properties in harm’s way will be key to adaptation. This study evaluates one approach to discouraging development in risky areas—eliminating public incentives for development, such as infrastructure investments, disaster assistance and federal flood insurance. Using machine learning and matching techniques, we examine the Coastal Barrier Resources System (CBRS), a set of lands where these federal incentives have been removed. We find that the policy leads to lower development densities inside designated areas, increases development in neighbouring areas, reduces flood damages and alters local demographics. Our results suggest that the CBRS generates substantial savings for the federal government by reducing flood claims in the National Flood Insurance Program, while increasing the property tax base in coastal counties.Adaptation requires limiting exposure to climate threats, and policies should focus on curbing development in risky areas. By examining the Coastal Barrier Resources Act, researchers demonstrate that removing financial incentives for development can lower climate risks and damages.
Rights
© The Authors 2024
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original authors and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
Original Publication Citation
Druckenmiller, H., Liao, Y., Pesek, S., Walls, M., & Zhang, S. (2024). Removing development incentives in risky areas promotes climate adaptation. Nature Climate Change, 14(9), 936-942. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-024-02082-3
Repository Citation
Druckenmiller, Hannah; Liao, Yanjun (Penny); Pesek, Sophie; Walls, Margaret; and Zhang, Shan, "Removing Development Incentives in Risky Areas Promotes Climate Adaptation" (2024). Economics Faculty Publications. 76.
https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/economics_facpubs/76
Supplementary Information
Comments
Data availability statement: Article states: "All raw data used in this study are publicly available except the property-level information on home values and characteristics from the Zillow Transaction and Assessment Database (ZTRAX), which we accessed through a licence available to researchers. Instructions for accessing raw data are provided in Supplementary Section B.1. The processed datasets are available at https://github.com/hdruckenmiller/cbra. Source data are provided with this paper."